CPU for my nephews build

[CaseyCracey]

Hey everybody 

In about a week I'll be building my nephew a 1080p60 machine for cpu taxing games like cities skylines and other games , His build will have a gtx 1060 6gb  and 16gb ram , for this sort of setup what sort of processor will I need for him to play cpu intensive games for the next 2 years?

[Princess Luna]

If you get an i5 8400 on a cheap compatible motherboard you're pretty much guaranteed more than 2 years of great gaming experience even on these games that demands more from the CPU.

 

We have just finally reached 6 cores in the mainstream so by the time we finally saturate it with gaming it'll be about 8 to 10 years abou the time it took to saturate 4 cores took.

 

IPC wise Coffee Lake is still the est you can get and since your nephew is probably no tech savvy a plug and play locked CPU is probably ideal than going Ryzen 5 2600x with a more expensive overclocking ready motherboard and do all the overclocking perks to end up with the same if not inferior gaming performance.

[CaseyCracey]

Just now, Princess Cadence said:

If you get an i5 8400 on a cheap compatible motherboard you're pretty much guaranteed more than 2 years of great gaming experience even on these games that demands more from the CPU.

 

We have just finally reached 6 cores in the mainstream so by the time we finally saturate it with gaming it'll be about 8 to 10 years abou the time it took to saturate 4 cores took.

 

IPC wise Coffee Lake is still the est you can get and since your nephew is probably no tech savvy a plug and play locked CPU is probably ideal than going Ryzen 5 2600x with a more expensive overclocking ready motherboard and do all the overclocking perks to end up with the same if not inferior gaming performance.

Thanks also what about the 8600 with a bit more muscle and also what do you think of the b360/h370 strix boards?He loves their design and so do I.

[Princess Luna]

3 minutes ago, CaseyCracey said:

.

If you want to invest more than the i5 8400 then the i7 8700 is the more logical pick, it has a much more meaningful boost in single thread performance thanks to its way higher default frequency clocks, meaning you'll be able to squeeze as much fps as possible from the GTX 1060 or even any newer GPU in the future line ups, the CPU is a monster that should be perfectly relevant for the next 5 years or even more.

 

Having Hyper-Threading is also a huge bonus and does wonders on minimum fps which is arguably most important factor to ensure a great gaming experience as you'll not have those micro-freezes all of sudden specially on heated up moments in the gameplay that can really annoy people.

[STRESSMASTER]

4 minutes ago, CaseyCracey said:

Thanks also what about the 8600 with a bit more muscle and also what do you think of the b360/h370 strix boards?He loves their design and so do I.

I have a build for my son with a fx-8130 and one for my daughter with a fx-8350 and both don't even top out. both have a corsair H80i aio and no overclocking. both have a 750ti and they can PLAY anything but a newer video card like a 1080ti would better future proof it. AMD bulldozers work great for future proofing as you can OC them as well. I did for kicks try OC'ing both and the 8130 got 4.4Ghz and the 8350 got 5.3 stable without even messing with the voltage. combos are really cheap right now so if you want something on the cheaper side to compensate for the high vid cost there u go

[CaseyCracey]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

If you want to invest more than the i5 8400 then the i7 8700 is the more logical pick, it has a much more meaningful boost in single thread performance thanks to its way higher default frequency clocks, meaning you'll be able to squeeze as much fps as possible from the GTX 1060 or even any newer GPU in the future line ups, the CPU is a monster that should be perfectly relevant for the next 5 years or even more.

 

Having Hyper-Threading is also a huge bonus and does wonders on minimum fps which is arguably most important factor to ensure a great gaming experience as you'll not have those micro-freezes all of sudden specially on heated up moments in the gameplay that can really annoy people.

I'll take the 8400 then , when I'm fully done with my pc can I post the build in the planning forum for the community to review?

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, CaseyCracey said:

I'll take the 8400 then , when I'm fully done with my pc can I post the build in the planning forum for the community to review?

Of course you can ask more about what parts should you get and further instructions or advises making a thread on the https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/18-new-builds-and-planning/ - section

 

And when you're finally going to build it altogether it is always welcome to share your experience in the https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/3-build-logs  - section

[CaseyCracey]

3 minutes ago, STRESSMASTER said:

I have a build for my son with a fx-8130 and one for my daughter with a fx-8350 and both don't even top out. both have a corsair H80i aio and no overclocking. both have a 750ti and they can PLAY anything but a newer video card like a 1080ti would better future proof it. AMD bulldozers work great for future proofing as you can OC them as well. I did for kicks try OC'ing both and the 8130 got 4.4Ghz and the 8350 got 5.3 stable without even messing with the voltage. combos are really cheap right now so if you want something on the cheaper side to compensate for the high vid cost there u go

Yea that's a good idea that I'll definitely have to consider , also  power to us old guys who have to support the new generation of tech savvy kids . My nephew is 12 and insists on using Arch Linux instead of Windows .

[Sergifq]

Honestly I recommend getting an i7 6700k (or non k) Z170 boards are at an all time low and you can find a 6700k for 200 on places like r/hardwareswap or eBay. Someone else posted the i5 8400 is an alright choice but personally if I were to get a future proof system (at least for the next 2-3 years) I would get a 6700k they have way better single core preformance than a 8400 and will preform better aswell. And if you need and upgrade in the future you can just get an i7 7700k. Best of luck and btw I don’t recommend getting fx/bulldozer, it is very outdated and will bottleneck a gtx 1060 if you are looking to get amd get Ryzen.

[Sergifq]

6 minutes ago, Joel2003 said:

Please ignore  this person do NOT get a FX chip in 2018 they are NOT future proof at all.

+1 Agreed.

[STRESSMASTER]

He wanted something for the next 2 years not 10 years. I gave him a ROI type of suggestion. current gen intel or Ryzen CPU's are only 10%-15% faster for double or tripple the cost. for a gaming system for a younger child a FX cpu and mobo combo being relatively cheap for a 2-3 year build with his 1060 6Gb video card is worth it. I would not recommend it for someone that said more than 5 years as that would be pushing it. Games are *MOSTLY* GPU intensive not CPU intensive. My rig has a fx-8120 as well with a 1080ti and I get 90FPS in almost every game and have yet to see any actually drop below the 60fps threshold.

 

This is spoken directly from experience and yes I also have a coffeelake k cpu on a 1080ti and they perform about the same. not much if any noticable difference if your not a profession competition player.

[Biggerboot]

59 minutes ago, Joel2003 said:

Please ignore  this person do NOT get a FX chip in 2018 they are NOT future proof at all.

Maybe at the time they were purchased.  (core debate aside)
Don't buy an FX now unless somebody is gifting it to you.

[Sergifq]

3 minutes ago, STRESSMASTER said:

He wanted something for the next 2 years not 10 years. I gave him a ROI type of suggestion. current gen intel or Ryzen CPU's are only 10%-15% faster for double or tripple the cost. for a gaming system for a younger child a FX cpu and mobo combo being relatively cheap for a 2-3 year build with his 1060 6Gb video card is worth it. I would not recommend it for someone that said more than 5 years as that would be pushing it. Games are *MOSTLY* GPU intensive not CPU intensive. My rig has a fx-8120 as well with a 1080ti and I get 90FPS in almost every game and have yet to see any actually drop below the 60fps threshold.

 

This is spoken directly from experience and yes I also have a coffeelake k cpu on a 1080ti and they perform about the same. not much if any noticable difference if your not a profession competition player.

Really? I highly highly doubt it. I would love to know what coffee lake cpu you have. Because any coffee lake cpu would outperform the fx 8120 by over 50% except for the i3 LOL.

[Biggerboot]

5 minutes ago, Sergifq said:

Really? I highly highly doubt it. I would love to know what coffee lake cpu you have. Because any coffee lake cpu would outperform the fx 8120 by over 50% except for the i3 LOL.

You discredit the i3 8100 too much, lol.  It'd match or edge out an FX 8150 if both were using all cores, and dominate it in any other scenario.

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-AMD-FX-8350/3942vs1489

[STRESSMASTER]

4 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

You discredit the i3 8100 too much, lol.  It'd edge out an FX 8150 if both were using all cores, and dominate it in any other scenario.

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-AMD-FX-8350/3942vs1489

probably but that's not including OC'ability. I can get my 8150 stable up to 5.4Ghz. Though I do agree that because the FX doesn't have hyperthreading it does take a performance hit on multi-processing at stock. 

 

BTW don't attempt extreme OC'ing unless you have a great heat dissipation system. I use an aio corsair H100i with 4x high output fans on a push/pull setup.

[Biggerboot]

 

7 minutes ago, STRESSMASTER said:

probably but that's not including OC'ability. I can get my 8150 stable up to 5.4Ghz. Though I do agree that because the FX doesn't have hyperthreading it does take a performance hit on multi-processing at stock. 

 

BTW don't attempt extreme OC'ing unless you have a great heat dissipation system. I use an aio corsair H100i with 4x high output fans on a push/pull setup.

Several reasons I wouldn't recommend go around recommend this to people on a tech forum, especially when it's a build for their kid.  You and I could probably tinker with that FX and get it working just right, but at that point you've spent more in cooling than the cost of the CPU.  It's a very niche situation.  I'd go for something that has a more guarenteed performance at the present time and is also probably much less of a headache.

[STRESSMASTER]

It's for a 2 year build for a 12 year old. As a parent and a server tech I'd rather pay $160 on a ebay fx than $500 on a intel for something I plan to replace on 2 years. 

 

ALSO no one is claiming anything about future proof!

6 minutes ago, Joel2003 said:

the person who says its futureproof with a 1080ti its not it would bottleneck like tons

 

[Biggerboot]

5 minutes ago, STRESSMASTER said:

It's for a 2 year build for a 12 year old. As a parent and a server tech I'd rather pay $160 on a ebay fx than $500 on a intel for something I plan to replace on 2 years. 

 

ALSO no one is claiming anything about future proof!

 

I can see an argument being made depending on the prices in your country.  Doesn't make much sense over here.

[STRESSMASTER]

3 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

 

Several reasons I wouldn't recommend go around recommend this to people on a tech forum, especially when it's a build for their kid.  You and I could probably tinker with that FX and get it working just right, but at that point you've spent more in cooling than the cost of the CPU.  It's a very niche situation.  I'd go for something that has a more guarenteed performance at the present time and is also probably much less of a headache.

I wasn't recommending OC BTW but stating a big difference. However, at this point it is a blue team versus Red. I just looked at ebay and seen a fx-8320 with a MSI 970 mobo for $160.Link It sounds like he has just about everything else he needs already except cpu mobo and RAM. For a 12 year old (i have a 13) it will do everything he wants it to for the stated 2 years with his 1060 6GB video card. My kid plays Skyrim special edition with a ton of HD mods without any issues and he has a lesser fx chip at stock & a 750ti 4Gb. He also play battlefield 1 at full settings without issues (he just told me as he's standing over my shoulder)

[Biggerboot]

19 minutes ago, STRESSMASTER said:

I wasn't recommending OC BTW but stating a big difference. However, at this point it is a blue team versus Red. I just looked at ebay and seen a fx-8320 with a MSI 970 mobo for $160.Link It sounds like he has just about everything else he needs already except cpu mobo and RAM. For a 12 year old (i have a 13) it will do everything he wants it to for the stated 2 years with his 1060 6GB video card. My kid plays Skyrim special edition with a ton of HD mods without any issues and he has a lesser fx chip at stock & a 750ti 4Gb. He also play battlefield 1 at full settings without issues (he just told me as he's standing over my shoulder)

Just to clear the air, id sooner recommend a ryzen 5 before fx.  So its not a brand loyalty thing.  Im glad that the chip works out for your case, but the newer architecture is just plain faster.

[STRESSMASTER]

7 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

Just to clear the air, id sooner recommend a ryzen 5 before fx.  So its not a brand loyalty thing.  Im glad that the chip works out for your case, but the newer architecture is just plain faster.

I actually have a Ryzen 5 1600x right now and yes it is fast by about 43% do to the threading capability being 12 instead of the fx which is max of 8 with 8 cores. The only issue I have run into is it's OC'ability is maxed around 4.0 to 4.1 and this seems to be the case on most ryzen chips. I have a 370 mobo. The problem I considered here since I just bought one is that DDR4 RAM is now over $200 for 2x8Gb and the speed of the RAM doesn't rly accept the cost. (I HATE CRYPTO MINING!!)

[CaseyCracey]

10 minutes ago, STRESSMASTER said:

I actually have a Ryzen 5 1600x right now and yes it is fast by about 43% do to the threading capability being 12 instead of the fx which is max of 8 with 8 cores. The only issue I have run into is it's OC'ability is maxed around 4.0 to 4.1 and this seems to be the case on most ryzen chips. I have a 370 mobo. The problem I considered here since I just bought one is that DDR4 RAM is now over $200 for 2x8Gb and the speed of the RAM doesn't rly accept the cost. (I HATE CRYPTO MINING!!)

Sorry as a server technician maybe you could help me , Nvidia gpus are rather stable in Linux right ? I mean his board will have an hdmi for intel integrated graphics but since hell be using Linux 90% of the time I'd rather you worked . 

Thanks in advance 

[Biggerboot]

8 minutes ago, CaseyCracey said:

Sorry as a server technician maybe you could help me , Nvidia gpus are rather stable in Linux right ? I mean his board will have an hdmi for intel integrated graphics but since hell be using Linux 90% of the time I'd rather you worked . 

Thanks in advance 

What will he be doing in linux?

[CaseyCracey]

1 minute ago, Biggerboot said:

What will he be doing in linux?

Mostly doing normal things and possibly gaming 

Normal as in web browsing doing his homework and  he told he wants to learn Java/python

[STRESSMASTER]

@CaseyCracey Yes the Nvidia cards in the 1000 series are very stable now. Of course your mileage may vary depending on manufacturer and build quality. I do not know of any current issues with the 1060 card you mentioned. It basically comes down to what driver you install but the linux community has basically got them very stable now.